Bottle handling machine



Oct. 19, 1943. J. CATTONAl R ET AL BOTTLE HANDLING MACHINE 5Sheets-Sheet 1 Fi led March 26, 1941 INVENTORS $07272 Chi-tundrand ewye0 c ev'rA'rToRNEY Oct. 19, 1943. 4

J. CATTONAR E TAL BOTTLE HANDLING MACHINE Filed March 26, 1941 5Sheets-Sheet 2 tVM/l" ATTORNEY ,J. CATTQNAR ET A1. BOTTLE HANDLINGMACHINE iarch 26, 1941 Y 5 Sheets-Sheet :5

Filed lllllln INVENTORS- I BY g? 00L 1943- J. CATTONAR ET AL BOTTLEHANDLING MACHINE Filed March 26, 1 941 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 {40f ATTORNEY06L 19 1943. J CATTQNAR AL 2,332,058 BOTTLE'HANDYLING MACHINE 5 SheetS-Sheet 5 Moi ATTORNEY l atented Got. 19,1943

s'rra s ear r pariah i (Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in packaging machines. Morespecifically. the present invention embodies improvements in applicants"Bottle packaging machine, Patent No. 2,277,688, dated March 31, 1942,which described the loading of bottles, jars and similar containers intoboxes or cases or crates, having compartments to re ceive said bottlesor similar containers.

The present invention provide an improved means of gripping the neck ofthe bottles, etc., previous to the loading operation by such a machine,offering thereby a departure in the art, considerable reduction ofmotion of its operative parts and a convenient adjustment for a widerange in height and diameter of bottles or containers to be handled.

The invention consists of a gripping device system for gripping theneckof bottles, or similar containers, to grip a single bottle, a row ofbottles, two rows of bottles, three rows of bottles, etc. The inventionwill be fully described hereinafter and embodiments shown in thedrawirurs,v which illustrate a convenientarrangement of the novelfeatures entering into the invention, it being understood that it ispermissible to make slight changes of details to suit manufacturingrequirements without departing from the spirit of the present inventiondefined herein and the scope of the appended claims.

The accompanying drawings are an illustration of the embodiment in apreferred way and the relative position of the different features andthe scope in relation to the features described,

in applicants Patent #2,.277,688.

Fig. 1 shows a front view of the improved machine with only two doublegripping devices shown, although any number of these may be used, so asto suit the number of bottles in. the longer, or lengthwise rows of thecase to be loaded;

2 shows a top view taken at about the level of line 2-2 of Fig. l, theposition of the bottle slider being in the proper relation to theposition of the gripper jaws of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a side elevation along a section taken on line 33 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 shows a partial side section taken at line d l of Fig. 2, withsome or the parts omitted for cleamess;

Fig. 5 shows in detail the mechanism for and the gripping device in itslocked position;

Fig. 6 shows a section of said mechanism and the gripping device takenon line 66 of Fig. 5 at its "release position;

Fig. 7 shows a detail section of the gripper jaws taken on line i ofFig. 6, and their relative position in respect to the key and the bottlejust before looking the neck of the bottle;

Fig. 8 is an enlarged View of the gripper carrying yoke as seen fromline 8-8 of Fig. 6;

Fig. 9 shows a top view of the ends of the gripper jaws taken from linetii of Fig. 5;

Fig. 10 is an enlarged view taken at line ill-id of Fig. 6 and shows theassembly of the grippers at that oint; and

Fig; 11 is a top view of the gripper guiding and operating parts,hereafter called interrupter carriage taken at diiferent levels,approximately on line iii-l l of Fig. 1.

Referring to the drawings, the machine is contained in a frame workcomposed of Walls 5 and 2 and cross member 3 aud t. Two large bracketsof convenient shape support most of the mechanism on and about thebottle level, being indicated on the left-hand frame 5 by 5, and on theright-hand frame 2 by A seen in Fig. 4,

cross member connects 5 and 6 and serves also as a guide into which asuitable projection to of a trap floor 8 is slidably mounted and coveredwithacover 9. j

As seen in Fig. 2, cam shaft it rotates in its bearing i l and i2fastened in the wall frames i and 2, respectively, and carries a numberof cams of which it atthe left and i l at the right of equal path impartthe necessary motion to the gripper carriage, through rollers 55,followers i=5 and levers E? which rock on shaft it fast in frames i and2. To counteract the weights or the gripper carriag parts and the fullbottles being handled, a counterweight i9 is bolted to the rear ends ofthe levers ll.

As seen in Figs. 1, 3 and 11, the lovers ii are connected through links26 to a cross member 2 i the two ends of which are guided by the flangedbody of a rack 22 fast on frame hand rack 23 fast on frame 2. On one endof the cross member it, one pinion 2d runs on th pin 25 fast on bearings26, which bearings are part of cross member 25 and engage rack 22, anddiametrically opposite engage rack 2'1; at the other end of El, anotherpinion 24 simharly mounted engages rack 23 and diametrically oppositeengages racl; 28. Guides 29 and 39 fastened on the cross member 2itogether with covers Si the other end of the gripper carrier 36. As bestshown in Fig. 1, cross member 2| through adjusting screw 31 connectswith one end of the interrupter carrier 36 and through adjusting screw39 connects with the other end of the interrupter carrier 33.

It will be seen from Figs. 1 and that the interrupter carrier 36 beingdirectly connected with the pinion carrying cross member 2|, will travelup and down a distance equal to the motion imparted to 2| by cam l3 andI4, follower levers l1, etc. Again the gripping carrier 36 beingdirectly connected to the free racks 21 and 28 will travel up and downat the same time and in the same direction as interrupter carrier 36,but at a speed equal to twice the speed of interrupter carrier 33. Thedistance between the gripper and interrupter carriers will decreaseduring their downward travel and correspondingly increase during theirupward travel.-

The difference in speed of said two carriers is here utilized to operatethe gripper jaws as follows:

Gripper carrier 36 (Fig. 1) is more or less a cast frame with a longslot in which -are slidably mounted blocks 40 which can be shifted bymeans of set screw 4| in slot 42pof cover 43 to match perpendicularlythe distance between the center of adjacent bottles in the row or rowbeing as'- sembled on trap floor 6 below. A threaded tube 44 is insertedinto each block 40 and fastened rigidly to it by nuts 45. at the upperend while at its lower end also threaded is fastened frame 46 carryingblocks 41 into which are inserted and to which are fastened by means ofnuts 49, tubes 43, in the same fashion as tubes 44 are fastened toblocks 43 of gripper carrier 36. Also in the same fashion as blocks 40,blocks 41 with tubes 48 can be shifted by means oi. set screw 56 in slot5| of frames 46. It is here pointed out that with the blocks 40, thedesired adjustment is obtained to match the distance between the centerof the bottles in the row or rows, while with the blocks 41 the desiredadjustment is obtained to match the distance between the centerof therows of bottles being assembled to be loaded. To the lower ends of tubes43 are fastened blocks 52 to which on pins 53 are hinged gripper iaws 54(Figs. 5 and 7). Tension spring 61 of which each end is attached to onegripper jaw 54 urges continuously the two jaws to lock, but theirlocking and releasing operation depend entirely on the position on whichroller 55, carried also by jaws 56, roll on the operative face of key12.

So far a direct and rigid connection ha been shown to exist all the wayfrom gripper carrier 36 down to gripper jaws 54 with springs 51 androllers 55. a

As seen in Figs. -5, 6 and 11, inside of tube 44 slides a round bar 56which rigidly connects with collar 59 around tube 44 by means of screw66 at a point near its upper end, and at its lower end it connects muchin the same fashion with threaded collar 6| by means of screw 62.

The interrupter carrier 36, similar in construction to gripper carrier36, carries blocks 63 which also can be shifted by means of set screws64 in slots 65 of cover 66 to match the block 40 above. Tube 44 is freeto slid in blocks 63 of carrier 38, in collar 59 and also in threadedcollar 6|. Screws 6! and 62 on bar 58 are free to run in the wall oftube 44 along slot 61 above block 63 and in slot '66 below threadedcollar 6|, respectively.

As shown in Figs. 6, 8 and 11, between the shoulder of the threadedcollar 6! and nut 69 there is a loosely locked yok III at each end ofwhich is inserted a round bar 1| which slides in tube 43 and which atits lower end carries key 12 to operate the gripper jaws 54. It will beobserved in Fig. 7, that key 12 presents to each roller55 to roll on,two vertically straight faces 12a and 120 and one sloped onein betweenThe operation of the gripper jaws is as follows:

In their upward travel at the higher rate of speed, racks 21 and 28(Fig. 1) will tak along the gripper carrier 36 with tubes 44. 48, bars58, II, jaws 54, key 12, etc., to a point, near the end of their upwardtravel at "which the top of nut 69 will hit the bottom of block 63 incarrier 38 which travels at low speed. This will cause the rate of speedat which bars 58, H, screws 60 and 62, collars 6|, 59, keys 12, etc.,travel (Fig. 8) to be retarded while jaws 54, tubes 48, 44 and all partsconnected therewith continue at the same high rate of speed for the restof the upward travel. Roller 55 at this time will have so run off face12a down slope 12b to face 120 and by action of springs 51, the jaws 54will close and lock the neck of bottle B (Fig. 7). At this time theupward travel of the gripping device will have ceased, trap floor 8 willshift and with it the bottle supporting strips 16 from under the bottlesand the gripping devices with the bottles locked will start theirdownward travel toward case C on the case conveyor floor below.

In their downward travel again, all parts and bottles will travel at thehigh rate of speed with racks 21 and 26 until the bottom of collars 59will hit the top of blocks 63 in carrier 38 which travels at low speed(Fig. 6) this will again retard the speed of bars 58, H, screws 60 and62, collars 59 and lil and key 12 while tubes 44, 48, jaws 64 and allparts connected therewith will continue at high speed for the rest ofthe downward travel, roller 55, will run oil face 120, up slope 12b toface 120 (Fig. 7), laws will spread apart releasing bottle B into caseC. Compression spring 13 in bars 'Il (Fig. 1) act as shock absorbers forbottles B. Indicators I4 and 15 point to marks on guides 29 and racks 21and 23, and indicate the different heights at which carriers 36 and 38should be set in order to grip and release at the proper time bottles ofdifierent heights.

It has been seen that the improvements here-' struction and advantagesof the invention may be readily understood by those skilled in the artwithout further description, it being borne in mind that numerouschanges may be made in the details disclosed without departing from thespirit of the invention as set out in the following claims.

What we claim is:

1. In a bottle packaging machine, a gripping device comprising a pair ofvertically disposed jaws having their lower ends provided with bottleneck engaging flanges, a horizontally disposed link connecting the otherends of the jaws, means for raising and lowering the link at apredeter-' mined speed of movement, means pivoting each aseaoss jaw toeach end of the link, a follower on each jaw disposed between the endsof the jaws, one projecting towards the other, a spring below saidfollowers pulling the jaws towards each other, a vertically movable. camdisposed between the followers to open the free ends of the jaws againstthe action of the spring, means operatively connecting said cam withsaid raising and lowering means for movement of said jaws and cam inunison, and means interposed at a predetermined point in the path ofmovement of said cam to retard movement of said cam relative to saidjaws whereby to effect movement of said cam relative to said followers.

2.,In a bottle packaging machine, the combination of a pair of pivotedjaws movable respectively to bottle engaging and bottle releasingpositions, spring means normally maintaining said jaws in bottleengaging position, cam means disposed between said jaws, supportingmeans for said jaws and cam means and movablevertically to raised andlowered positions to correspondingly raise and lower said jaws and cammeans at a predetermined speed, means movable simultaneously with saidsupporting means but at a slower'speed and arranged in the path ofmovement of said cam means to retard the speed of movement of the latterrelative to said jaws at a predetermined point in the path of movementof the latter, and means cooperating with said cam means during movementof the latter at a speed less than that of said jaws to move saidjawsfrom bottle engaging position to bottle releasing position. against theaction of said spring means during movement of said supporting means inone direction and to permit movement of said jaws from bottle releasingto bottle engaging position by said spring means during movement of saidsupporting means in the opposite direction.

3. In a bottle packaging machine, a gripping device comprising a pair ofjaws having their lower ends provided with bottle neck engaging flanges,a link connecting the other end of the jaws, meansfor supporting thelink, means pivoting each jaw to each end of the link, a follower oneach jaw disposed between the ends of the jaws, one projecting towardsthe other, a spring below said followers pulling the jaws towards eachother, a movable cam disposed between the followers to open the freeends of the jaws against the action of the spring, means for raising andlowering said jaws at a predetermined speed of movement, meansoperatively connecting said cam to said raising and lowering means formovement of said cam simultaneously with said jaws and in the samedirection, and means operable to retard movement of said cam relative tosaid jaws at a predetermined point adjacent the raised andloweredpositions of said jaws whereby to permit movement of the follower oneach jaw relative to said cam.

4. In a bottle packaging machine, a gripping device having a pair ofmatched flanges in reverseeach of substantially semi-circular shape toconform to the curvature of the neckof the bottle at its shortestdiameter below the cap engaging bulb, and when' closed against the neckonly partially surrounding said neck and diametrically opposite to eachother, cam means interposed between said flanges and adapted to moverelative to the latterfor movement of said flanges to gripping andreleasing positions, and means for moving said flangesand cam meanssimultaneously and in the same direction but at difierent speedsrelative to one another whereby to effect movement of said cam meansrelative to said flange.

' 'JOHN CATTONAR.

GEORGE OLM.

